CWRU Graduate Student Senate Calendar

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GSS Committee Chairs

Committees are the business end of the Graduate Student Senate (GSS), so a majority of the Senate's objectives are executed by its standing (permanent) and ad-hoc (temporary) committees. Often, committees are formed in response to an issue endemic within the graduate student community which demands the creation of a specialized task force charged not only with defining and investigating the problem but also engineering a solution in consultation with and in collaboration with graduate students, faculty, and University Leadership.

Therefore, Committee Chairs are responsible for leading these efforts by setting objectives for their committees, recruiting an engaged and able body of committee members from throughout the graduate student body, and authoring reports documenting the results of their committee's meetings, productivity, and progress toward meeting their objectives. The Graduate Student Senate has a number of committees including the Activities, Health & Wellness, Mentoring, Student Organizations and Allocations, and Professional Development Committees. Committee Chairs sit on the GSS Executive Committee and are voting members of the Graduate Student Senate (GSS).

Chair, GSS Activities Committee, Melody Maxson

Biosketch: Raised in northeast Texas, I received an undergraduate degree in Physics at Colorado College before
joining the Physics department at CWRU as a PhD student. I am a second year graduate student
researching the properties and growth processes of the ternary nitrides, an exciting and largely
unexplored class of semi-conductors. I originally joined the Activities Committee as a way to branch out
and meet graduate students not associated with my own program. Through the Committee I came to
collaborate with the CWRU chapter of Colleges Against Cancer which organizes Relay for Life and
currently serve as the Graduate Student Engagement Chair. Within the Physics Graduate Student
Association (PGSA) I also serve as co-Vice President and Senator.
other students.

Statement of Intent:: : I believe that for many graduate students, the driving motivation behind joining GSS has been to meet
and form friendships with students outside of our own programs and concentrations. Often, graduate
school is a place where students find themselves so fully immersed in their research that they forget
that this is also a time to build friendships and create memorable experiences outside of the lab or
classroom. As Activities Chair, it is my responsibility to organize and promote events that help students
break out of their bubble and fully enjoy this transformative time of their lives. I aim to both continue
the successful programs of previous chairs (e.g. Happy Hour at the Jolly Scholar) and devise new events
to include graduate students, particularly international students, who have inadvertently been
underrepresented by our committee in the past.

Chair, GSS Health & Wellness Committee, Stacey Chung

Duties and Responsibilities: The Chair of the Health Care Committee is responsible for representing student interests as decisions are made regarding health benefits for students and their dependents. This year, that includes addressing the need for increased choice among dental care providers, gathering information that will allow students to use health care in a more cost-effective way, and taking a comprehensive look at how health benefits and other financial aid and compensation relate to each other for graduate and professional students at Case.

Biosketch: Stacey Chung is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Nutrition studying vitamin E trafficking
in the liver. She has served as Senator and Secretary of GSS and is still currently the
representing Senator for the Department of Nutrition Ph.D. program. Being a part of GSS has
opened her to many opportunities to be involved with promoting professional development and
improving sustainable practices on campus by starting the Graduate Sustainability Coalition
(former named Graduate Student Green Team). Stacey also enjoys practicing Kendo, the way
of the sword, to help balance work and physical activity.

Statement of Purpose: As Health and Wellness Chair, my goal is to work alongside Health Services and graduate
students to improve health option awareness on campus. I am also interested to help organize
sessions to promote health on campus. I am currently incorporating sessions in the Professional
Development Conference where facilitators can talk about healthy eating despite having busy
schedules. I also want to ensure that Health fairs
focus on graduate student health and wellness.

Chair, GSS Mentoring Committee, Chaturia Rouse

Duties and Responsibilities: The mentoring committee helps develop the graduate student's transition from a junior student to a future colleague. Emphasis is on infrastructure and support, graduate student training, conflict resolution, and reengineering of the importance of graduate student education.

Biosketch: I graduated from Spelman College earning a BS in Biology. After graduation, I moved
to Boston, MA (climate shock!) to begin graduate school at Boston University. Upon obtaining
my MPH in Biostatistics, I relocated to Atlanta to work at the Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention, (CDC), as a public health analyst contractor in the Division of Tuberculosis
Elimination. Currently, I am a first year graduate student in the MS in Medical Physiology
program. Outside of school, I enjoy watching TV, trivia, cooking, and yoga.

Statement of Intent: Becoming the chair of the Mentoring & Diekhoff Committee would not
only afford me the opportunity to become involved with GSS, it would also allow me to invest in
Case Western Reserve University in a positive and productive manner. I am keenly aware of the
value of collaboration, innovation, diversity, and commitment needed to serve as chair of the
Mentoring & Diekhoff Committee. My goal as the committee chair would be to sustain the
integrity of the committee, and expand its goals for future Case graduates, something I am
excited to commit to. Serving as the chair of this committee would additionally permit me to
be supportive in the area of professional development for graduate students, an integral part of
career and personal growth.

Duties and Responsibilities: Serves as a liaison to those graduate students and organizations wishing to receive GSS recognition and/or funding.

Biosketch: I am a fourth year doctoral student in the department of Sociology. Employing cumulative dis/advantage theory, my current research projects examine the social determinants of health disparities in later life. My involvement in GSS as a graduate student senator begun in 2012. I have been serving on the GSS Executive Committee as the College of Arts and Sciences student executive since spring 2013. Previously, I was Vice President of Nepalese student association at Miami University. During my association with GSS, I have served on the professional development committee, Faculty Senate Research Committee, and V-fund task force. I have also endeavored to promote student engagement by volunteering at GSS organized or sponsored events. In addition to my involvement in GSS, I have been serving as a student associate at the University Center on Aging and Health and Palliative Care Education and Research Leadership (PEARL) group for the past 3 years. Through my leadership experience here and at other universities, I have gained experience in
planning and organization of events. I have played major part in organization of professional development events. I have collaborated with the College of Arts and Sciences to organize events to promote interaction between student senators and the deans. As part of GSS executive
committee, I have played a central role in establishing travel and research funding as major GSS initiatives last year. As the Chair of GSS Student Organizations & Allocations Committee, I will draw on my prior experience to perform activities as specified by GSS and will also help address
some of the issues that became aware of as a member of GSS Executive Committee. More specifically, I will:

Endeavor to increase diversity among student organizations and encourage them to organize collaborative events.

Ensure that student organizations maintain current benefits to help them flourish under new organizational framework (after GSS-GPC unification).

Formulate policy to encourage representatives of student organizations to come to GA meetings to advertise their events.

Chair, GSS Professional Development Committee, Elise Blankenship

Duties and Responsibilities: The Professional Development Committee Chair is responsible for providing opportunities for career development to graduate students that they wouldn't ordinarily receive in their planned programs of studies, organizing regular professional development events for graduate students to attend.

Biosketch: : I am currently a second-year PhD student at the Center for Proteomics and
Bioinformatics, where I study the structure of G-protein coupled receptors using x-ray
crystallography and computational approaches. I have always enjoyed being actively engaged in organizations on campus, as I find it an essential part of personal growth and learning. During
my undergraduate at The Ohio State University, I was an officer in both my sorority (Alpha Xi
Delta) and for the student government of my major (Food Science and Nutrition). During my
time at Case, I have become involved in several groups: I serve as a GSS senator for my
department, on the Professional Development Committee, as Secretary of the Computational
Biology Student Group (CBGSO), and as Chairperson of this year’s Biomedical Graduate Student
Symposium (BGSS). Outside of the lab, I like to stay active and regularly practice yoga, rock
climbing, and cycling.

Statement of Intent: : I have been continually impressed by the quality of programming put on
by the GSS, and hope to increase it even more by planning a series of conferences and
workshops that help graduate students identify and improve skills that are essential for a
successful career. Additionally, I hope to engage the new Professional Development Center in
putting on these events. It is of paramount importance to me that the programming put on by
the committee be relevant, complete, and broadly applicable to all graduate and professional
students at the university.

Chair, GSS Activities Committee, Courtney Diener (resigned Feb. 2015)

Biosketch: As an Undergraduate, I attended Bowling Green State
University where I received dual Bachelor of Science degrees in
Social Work and Education. I am currently attending the Mandel
School of Applied Social Sciences where I am concentrating on
Community Practice for Social Change with a special focus in
adult mental health and a certificate in Management and
Leadership. Specifically, I work with violence research,
prevention, education and support. When I am not interning or
studying, I enjoy volunteering in my community and meeting
other students.

Statement of Intent:: : When I first came to CWRU, I was so
excited to get to know and build relationships with graduate
students across campus. After a few weeks, I started to notice that I only had exposure to
students in my program and even in my concentration. I began getting involved with GSS and
GPC to build those connections and came to understand how important it is that the university
and graduate student organizations create opportunities for community building and
interactions between graduate students of all programs and councils.
As Activities Chair, I plan on using the momentum previous events and chairs have created to
continue to create events that support graduate student intermixing and connect graduate
students to CWRU and the Cleveland community. Additionally, I plan on continuing the
collaborations between Graduate Student Senate events and the events of Graduate
Professional Council as I believe this is a great way to connect Graduate and Professional
students.